Kirsten Luce for The New York TimesKelly Bowen of Algonquin Books greets the public at BookExpo America at the Javits Center. This article focused on the rise of digital offerings in the industry, and we ran more than one lesson this year about the intersection of literature and technology. Go to related article »The school year is drawing to a close, and our lesson plans have already gone on summer vacation. So this week we’re looking back at the 2010-11 school year and collecting the year’s teaching materials by subject matter. Below are the lesson plans we ran this year in academic skills, language arts, journalism and culture as well as interdisciplinary topics.
Check the post from Tuesday for all of the year’s lessons in social studies, American history and civics, global history, economics and geography and Wednesday in science, health, technology and math. (Even if those aren’t your primary subject areas, you may want to take a look at those collections, as many of our lesson plans are cross-curricular or can be adapted easily for other subjects.)
We hope our resources have been useful to you this year, and as always, we welcome your stories and feedback. Did you use our materials, and if so, how did it go? Do you have suggestions for us? Please share your experiences and thoughts in the comment box below.
Like last year, Times articles this school year lent themselves to quite a wide range of lesson plan topics in language arts. They provided rich fodder for teaching materials that went deep into specific issues and material as well as cross-curricular projects. One topic we returned to repeatedly and in different ways was the use of technology in the study of literature, reading and writing.
Academic Skills
- Briefly Noted: Practicing Useful Annotation Strategies
- Questioning Authority: Evaluating Wikipedia Articles
- Advance Notice: Examining the Focus and Value of the A.P. Program
- Going Into Detail: Developing Proofreading Skills
- Manny in High School: A Slide Show That Tells a Slugger’s Story
- Making a Commitment: Memorizing and Reciting
Language Arts, Literature and Journalism
Writing:
- Less Is More: Using Social Media to Inspire Concise Writing
- Reading and Responding: Holding Writing Workshops
- Passion Prompts: Sentence Starters for Writing About Relationships
- Creative State of Mind: Focusing on the Writing Process
- Going Beyond Cliché: How to Write a Great College Essay
- Putting Personality on Paper: Writing About People Using Times Models
Reading:
- Rounding Up the Usual Suspects: Interpreting Famous Quotations
- Found in Translation: Parsing and Appreciating Difficult Texts
- OMG!! Exploring Slang
- More Great Read-Alouds From The New York Times
- Figuratively Speaking: Exploring How Metaphors Make Meaning
Literature:
- Dark Materials: Reflecting on Dystopian Themes in Young Adult Literature
- An American Wit: Approaching Mark Twain’s Life and Works
- What Would Cleopatra Do? Drawing Lessons From History or Literature
- Big Brother vs. Little Brother: Updating Orwell’s ‘1984’
- In Service of the Story: Exploring Questions of Truth in Memoir
- One-Way Ticket? Exploring the Great Migration in Literature and the Arts
- Viewer, She Marries Him: Comparing ‘Jane Eyre’ in Literature and Film
- Modern Minstrelsy: Exploring Racist Stereotypes in Literature and Life
- Songs in the Key of Lit: Ways to Use Music to Study Literature
- Print vs. Digital: Analyzing and Designing Book Apps for Works of Literature
- Poetry on Film: Interpreting ‘Howl’ in the 21st Century
Journalism:
- Opinion Through the Ages: Exploring 40 Years of New York Times Op-Eds
- Journalists at Risk: Considering the Perils and Value of War Reporting
- Beyond Question: Learning the Art of the Interview
- The Events in Libya: Using Reporting and Multimedia to Understand News
- Short and Sweet: Deconstructing and Crafting Brief Arts Reviews
Culture
- On the Market: Thinking Critically About Advertising
- Bieber Fever: Casting a Critical Eye on Celebrities and Popular Culture
- Real vs. Virtual: Examining Works of Art Online
- What Does Change Look Like? Making Documentaries About School
Interdisciplinary Topics
Breaking news:
- Summer 2011: Tracking Topics in the News
- Teachers Respond to the Crisis in Japan
- 20 Ways to Teach About the Disaster in Japan Across the Curriculum
- Chile y Todo el Mundo: Connecting the Chilean Miners Story With Universal Themes
- Teaching Ideas: The Death of Osama bin Laden
- Nine Years, 779 People: Guantánamo Bay and the Implications of the Files
Evergreen topics:
- ‘A Troubling Trend’: Discussing Bullying and Antigay Attitudes
- On Coming Out: Exploring the Stories of Gay Teenagers
- Confronted Challenges and Broken Barriers: Profiling Extraordinary Women
- Using Our New On This Day Feature
- From Dr. Spock to the Tiger Mother: Studying Parents and Families
- That’s Funny: Comedy Across the Curriculum
- Data Visualized: More on Teaching With Infographics
- Marriage and the Monarchy: Lessons From the British Royal Family
Teaching Topics
We added the following to our Teaching Topics collection, which includes resources on numerous great books, this year:
- 12 Ways to Learn Vocabulary With The New York Times
- 10 Ways to Celebrate Banned Books Week
- Teaching With and About Technology
- Using The New York Times for Teaching and Learning About Women
- 100 Ways to Celebrate the 100th Day of School With The New York Times
- Teaching Twain and Huckleberry Finn With the New York Times
- Teaching ‘The Crucible’ With The New York Times
We also started two new features, both of which include language arts-related teaching materials:
- Great Ideas From Readers, which features projects and activities that use The New York Times sent in by teachers and so far includes creative teaching ideas for homeschooling, Transcendentalism, grammar, English-language learning and teaching business English, among others.
- Test Yourself, which includes twice-weekly language questions for brushing up on skills and preparing for standardized tests.
And we ran two student challenges:
- Caption a New York Times Photo With a Quotation, which yielded more than 150 entries and 10 “favorites.”
- The second annual Found Poem Challenge, which yielded more than 650 entries and 10 “favorites.”
Check back with us soon for our second annual New York Times as Your Summer Reading student challenge, which we are planning to run in July, and at other times over the summer and as you start your curriculum planning for the fall. As always, thank you for teaching with The New York Times.
We'll begin publishing our favorites on May 31, and will publish a new favorite every day through June 13. 
What's on your summer reading list? Teachers and students, weigh in and we'll compile and publish both lists!
